AIDS Vaccine Yields Limited Protective Effect for First Time

Success with an AIDS vaccine is giving researchers some hope:

"An experiment in Thailand involving 16,000 men and women has demonstrated for the first time a small but measurable protective effect of an AIDS vaccine. The vaccine, a complicated mixture of six 'prime' and 'booster' shots, reduced a person's risk of becoming infected by about one-third compared to people getting placebo injections. The results were barely significant on statistical grounds, perplexing for scientific reasons and unanticipated by most researchers. Nevertheless, the first positive results for an AIDS vaccine after two decades of experimentation was being called a milestone."

The NYT reports: "Results of the trial of the vaccine, known as RV 144, were released at 2 a.m. Eastern time Thursday in Thailand by the partners that ran the trial, by far the largest of an AIDS vaccine: the United States Army, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Fauci’s institute, and the patent-holders in the two parts of the vaccine, Sanofi-Pasteur and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases. Col. Jerome H. Kim, a physician who is manager of the army’s H.I.V. vaccine program, said half the 16,402 volunteers were given six doses of two vaccines in 2006 and half were given placebos. They then got regular tests for the AIDS virus for three years. Of those who got placebos, 74 became infected, while only 51 of those who got the vaccines did. Although the difference was small, Dr. Kim said it was statistically significant and meant the vaccine was 31.2 percent effective. Dr. Fauci said that scientists would seldom consider licensing a vaccine less than 70 or 80 percent effective, but he added, 'If you have a product that’s even a little bit protective, you want to look at the blood samples and figure out what particular response was effective and direct research from there.'"

Said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition: "This is a hugely exciting and, frankly, unexpected result. It changes our thinking in ways we hadn’t anticipated. We often talk about whether a vaccine is even possible. This is not the vaccine that ends the epidemic and says, ‘O.K., let’s move on to something else.’ But it’s a fabulous new step that takes us in a new direction."

An ITN video report, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: #uknowhowiknowuregay, Sharks, Steve Hildebrand, Maine

1,000 take to the streets in Friday protest over homophobic attacks in Rome.

Jesus on Mars?

Jeremy Piven hits the beach.

Has-been rapper Fabolous behind offensive #uknowhowiknowuregay Twitter trending topic.

Obama advisor Steve Hildebrand thrashes President, Dems: "I gave up a lot to elect Democrats, and I expect them to give it up for me. I’m going to speak loudly. The Republicans don’t have power unless the moderates and the Blue Dogs give it to them — which is what they’re doing now."

Des Moines, Iowa man claims he was removed from a bar for being gay.

Ted Haggard apologizes for violating an entire congregation.

Nampa, Idaho's transgender candidate Melissa Sue Robinson, who recently announced she was suing Twitter over fake account defamation, gets profiled by AP: "This farming and manufacturing town of about 83,000 residents, where a sugar factory and a local hospital are among the biggest employers, doesn't seem to be all that concerned that Robinson previously lived as a man."

New Zealand transgender MP visits Nepal.

Beach closed: Great White Sharks tagged off Cape Cod.

USA Today on Judy Shepard, her new book, and a federal hate crimes law: "Shepard, who loves playing mah-jongg and drinking martinis, admits to being 'flummoxed' at times about the gay and lesbian world. But, she adds, 'It's not important that I understand it. It's important that I accept it.'"

Britney Spears shocks concert crowd with actual singing.

Washington Post ombudsman on Brian Brown NOM puff piece: "Hesse said she decided to let Brown tell his story, as opposed to extensively quoting what others say about him. Her editors didn't object to the concept. Having Brown's story told in his "voice," Hesse reasoned, would allow readers to best assess his arguments. Fine in theory. But it deprived readers of hearing from others who have battled Brown and find him uncivil and bigoted. To them, he represents injustice. They should have been heard, at length."

NOM's Maggie Gallagher spews lies on Maine radio show.

Calvin Klein model Jamie Dornan launches international male model search.

Scientists identify trio of genetic mutations linked to Alzheimer's disease.

Schwarzenegger's phones blitzed over 'Harvey Milk Day': "So far, the governor’s automated phone line for constituents has received more than 100,000 calls about the bill, most against it, according to Mr. Schwarzenegger’s office."

Real World's Scott Herman shows off his assets.

Little Britain's David Walliams is nominated for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize for his book about a cross-dressing schoolboy. The prize honors the funniest books for children.

Church of Scotland selects gay man, Scott Rennie, to train as a minister.

Maine Archbishop Richard Malone asks churches to fill coffers for fight against marriage equality: "The bishop has asked churches to take up a special second collection next weekend to support Stand For Marriage Maine, the group leading the effort to repeal Maine's same sex marriage law."

Obama Chooses Dr. Regina Benjamin as Next Surgeon General

It's being reported that President Obama has chosen Alabama family physician Dr. Regina Benjamin to be the next Surgeon General.

The AP reports: "Benjamin was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and just last fall received a MacArthur Foundation 'genius grant.' But she made headlines in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with her determination to rebuild her rural health clinic Bayou La Batre, Ala., which serves 4,400 patients who would be hard-pressed to find care elsewhere."

Obama is set to make the announcement later today.

Genetically-Bred Glowing Monkey Has Glowing Babies

Wired reports on transgenic advances that could benefit neuroscience and stem cell research:

"The marmosets, pictured above, express a green fluorescent protein in their skin. The gene for producing the glow was delivered to the first marmoset embryos via a modified virus. But now that modification method could become unnecessary. One male marmoset, number 666, fathered a child that also contained the transgenes. 'The birth of this transgenic marmoset baby is undoubtedly a milestone,' developmental biologists Gerald Schatten and Shoukhrat Mitalipov at the Pittsburgh Development Center and Oregon Stem Cell Center...wrote in a commentary accompanying the study Thursday in Nature. 'The cumbersome and often frustrating process of making a transgenic animal from scratch need now only occur with founder animals.'

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #476

CONNIE CULP: First full face transplant recipient, shot in the face by her husband five years ago, speaks.

EVOLUTION VS SCIENCE: Indiana Congressman Mike Pence won't say he believes in evolution.

PET AIRWAYS: The first airline devoted to cats and dogs.

SLEEPYHEAD: Shot and edited in one weekend. Song by Passion Pit.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

News: Stephen Hawking, Blindness, Paul Rudnick, Tuna, Morrissey

2009 Pulitzer Prize winners announced.

Stem cells to cure most common form of blindness: "Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time. The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells. This week Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical research company, will announce its financial backing to bring the therapy to patients." 

Milo Ventimiglia brings back 50's cut...

Got Talent: Britain has Susan Boyle, while Sweden has Naked Boys Dancing.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan recognized Friday's Day of Silence.

Madonna falls off horse, blames paparazzi.

Parents of gay children come out of the closet in China...

Kelly Clarkson does not hook up - video.

Bishop Gene Robinson: Civil and religious marriage should be separate. "In this country, it has become very confusing about where the civil action begins and ends and where the religious action begins and ends, because we have asked clergy to be agents of the state."

Bluefin tuna to be extinct by 2012?

Morrissey has meltdown over smell of grilled meat at Coachella.

Lady GaGa refuses to reveal anything about her teacup.

Paul Rudnick responds to Ted Haggard as fellow-heterosexual-with-issues Pastor Stan Belker: "As a teen-ager, I found that I was attracted both to serving Our Lord and to Jimmy Wiggins, the assistant coach of my high-school soccer team. I was in torment, and I would pray for hours on end, asking God why He would command me to love Him so deeply and at the same time just go and create Jimmy’s snug little soccer shorts."

Stephen Hawking "very ill" according to Cambridge University.

Gay controversy on UK version of The Apprentice as one contestant wants to re-brand the British seaside town of Margate as a gay resort and a teammate tells him she'd never let a homosexual come near her son.

Rice University survey shows growing support for gay rights.

Gawker Headquarters seating chart.

Australian crocodile bait.

Sacha Baron-Cohen apologizes to Madonna over adoption gag: "Madonna was said to be upset at a scene in Bruno’s forthcoming film which mocks her attempts to adopt an African baby. And we hear that shame-faced 37-year-old Sacha has sent her a bouquet of flowers to apologise.  An insider said: 'Sacha is always out to make great comedy – and if he upsets people along the way, so be it. But when word reached him that Madonna thought his sketch was insensitive, he sent her a bouquet of flowers to say, ‘No hard feelings’.'"

Some super slo-mo beauty.

Anti-gay hate crime convictions in Wales double in three years.

Iowa Republicans claim advisory that state recorders must perform same-sex marriages comes across as "veiled threat": [Victoria Hutton of the Iowa Department of Public Health] wrote in the e-mail: 'Following is the response from our attorney from the Iowa Attorney General's office. All county recorders in the state of Iowa are required to comply with the Varnum decision ... and to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples in the same manner as licenses issued to opposite gender applicants.'"